Apple files for ownership of 'Magic Trackpad' trademark

Apple this week filed for ownership of the term "Magic Trackpad" with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, perhaps signaling the name for a new product, or a rebranding of the company's existing trackpads.

Filed on Monday, the publicly available application from Apple seeks control of the trademark in relation to computers and devices in both hardware and software. It does not give any indication whether a Magic Trackpad would represent a standalone product, or a rebranding of the multi-touch trackpad on existing MacBook hardware.

The naming would correspond with the new multi-touch Magic Mouse introduced by Apple last fall. The entire surface of the device can track independent fingers for activities like scrolling and zooming, much like on an iPhone or iPod touch.

Last October, before Apple introduced its new line of iMac desktops, Daring Fireball's John Gruber shared a rumor that the company could introduce a multi-touch trackpad for desktop Macs. However, the supposed product was not unveiled and nothing has been said of it since.

The multi-touch trackpad was first introduced to the MacBook Air family of notebooks, though it was later brought to the MacBook Pro and MacBook line of portable computers.

In December, it was discovered that a dummy corporation set up by Apple called Slate Computing had obtained ownership of the "Magic Slate" trademark. That same company owns the "iSlate" trademark, and Apple owns the islate.com domain name.

At the time, the slate names were seen as a possible brand for Apple's then-unannounced tablet device. In January, Apple revealed its final, true name: the iPad.